Get ready to travel the Microsoft Teams Road at Microsoft Ignite

The big big conference is just around the corner! Beginning in just TWO days it will be two days of exciting news, knowledge, keynotes, overviews and deep-dive sessions along with loads of interaction and community activities. Since #MSIgnite is virtual and free to attend this year (we all know why) Microsoft has taken extra steps to bring in more interactivity via Table Talk-sessions and Tech Community forum. There is also digital swag that can be enjoyed and used!

In this blog post I will focus the #MSIgnite : first on sessions and activities I am taking part of and then mostly on Teams-side to point out useful Teams references to you. If you haven’t registered yet then make it so as soon as possible and start building your Microsoft Ignite schedule: https://myignite.microsoft.com

 

My speaking and activities at Microsoft Ignite

This year community takes part of Ignite in various ways, but there isn’t any traditional “MVP and MCT lead sessions” this year. But looking the number of awesome community driven events happening around the globe you can hook into those by attending online conferences. For example #TeamsFest has 85 sessions with over 90 speakers from Microsoft and big number of MVPs as well. #TeamsFest happens on 7th of October in CEST timezone but early morning start enables people from APAC (or night owls in US) to join and at the late afternoon – end of day it will be morning in US. Check for more info at https://euroteamsug.com/teamsfest

 

Back to the topic at hand:

I will be doing two Table Talks with other MVPs and Microsoft speakers at Microsoft Ignite. You can sign up to them both from: https://myignite.microsoft.com/speaker/e0a2de62-1ac0-4ded-b944-a178b9aa94fc

Table Topics are interactive panel discussion sessions and audience is encouraged to participate (yes, it is a Teams Meeting, capping with 300 participants) with questions and sharing their experiences! While the actual session is short (30 minutes) it is combined with Table Talk topics at Tech Community forum tables allowing audience to interact with speakers before and after the session – making these truly interactive way and one of the best ways to engage audience with speakers in a virtual conference. And personally I love this concept because it is how Teams Meetings should be done as in intelligent meeting lifecycle: pre, during and after meeting collaboration.

 

Microsoft 365 App Developers and Power Platform Community Meet-up

Meet people from the Microsoft 365 Developer and Power Platform communities to explore what you can do with our powers combined! Unmute yourself, turn your camera on – No presentations here! Your community peers will lead a discussion to help you uncover helpful tips on Microsoft Graph, Power Automate, SPFx, Azure Functions, Auth and more!

Join the Microsoft 365 Community Table (https://aka.ms/TableTopic/Microsoft365) ahead of time so we can address your questions.

Running Community Events in an Online World

Meet and share stories with fellow attendees in an open discussion using Teams Meetings about running online community events. Unmute yourself, turn your camera on – No presentations here! Your community peers will lead a discussion about topics such as running online events using Microsoft Teams, finding ways to interact with your virtual audience, best practices for accessible online events.

Join the ‘Community Best Practices & Leadership’ Community Table https://aka.ms/TableTopic/Community on the Tech Community ahead of time to catch up on the conversation beforehand.

Be prepared for chat and a fun interactive discussion!

Ask the Experts -sessions “Microsoft Teams Virtual Booths”

This is a list of confirmed Ask the Expert sessions where I am participating as a Subject Matter Expert. go ahead and add these to your Ignite schedule and hit us with questions! These sessions are kind of virtual Microsoft Teams booths. Last year I had lots of fun being at Teams booths and talking with people, helping them out and also learning myself something new as well. Don’t miss these ATEs!

• Ask the Expert: Scale and Customize Virtual Meetings and Events with Microsoft Teams
• Ask the Expert: Simplify work with low-code solutions for Microsoft Teams & Microsoft 365
• Ask the Expert: Creating a resilient, inclusive, and hybrid workplace with Microsoft Teams ​

Needless to say, but I say it anyway, that I am extremely honored and proud to be involved with Microsoft Ignite via Table Talks and ATE-sessions (virtual booth a so much better name for these).

 

Microsoft Teams at #MSIgnite

First the fun part: Microsoft Teams Virtual Photo Booth! You don’t want miss this one – you can create your own photo booth image by tuning your selfie with lots of fun stickers on top of it!

 

Guide to Microsoft Teams at Microsoft Ignite 2020: https://aka.ms/TeamsIgniteGuide

 

Key sessions you don’t want to miss are:

• The Microsoft Ignite opening keynote: Building Digital Resilience ( Satya Nadella )
• The Future of Work ( Jared Spataro )
• Creating a resilient, inclusive, and hybrid workplace with Microsoft Teams ( Nicole Herskowitz )
• Enabling collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Project Cortex, and more ( Jeff Teper )

This picks are directly from Teams Sessions Brochure that includes all Microsoft Teams related sessions (and there are many of them!) https://aka.ms/TeamsSessions

Don’t also miss to check Patch & Switch Unofficial End User Guide to Ignite: https://buff.ly/3gYLO5G before the event. It is especially guided towards those who are attending digital Microsoft Ignite the first time.

 

Excited? YES!

I am as excited about Microsoft Ignite 2020 as much as I was when I attended Ignite 2019. This year is different but also it opens up lots of new possibilities to interact with the audience. No, it is not the same as meeting face-to-face but it should not be the purpose either. Digital / virtual world has it’s own strengths and superpowers and it should not try to replicate face-to-face world 1:1, instead – just like with Microsoft Teams – think about the goal and why so you can create a digital version of it. Just like in Digital Transformation: rethink and create a better version than what was in the real world earlier.

This year’s Microsoft Ignite is different since it allows a lot more people to attend the event around the world since the event is free and there is no need for traveling nor think about the cost of attending: inclusive. All key sessions are live for three times to include different timezones as well! This is great news for us not in US – we don’t have stay away all night.

Let’s meet at the Microsoft Ignite virtually! See you in Tech Community and in sessions! And don’t forget hashtags #MSIgnite and #MicrosoftTeams when you are posting something to social media! I will be mostly active in Twitter – see you there!

• Microsoft Power Platform
• Microsoft Teams